Thursday afternoon, at 39 wks and 3 days, I came home from work and took a wonderful, and long, walk in the park. It was one of the 1st warm days we've had and the daffodils had exploded everywhere! Then I went and picked up my 3.5 yr old DS and headed home to see if Daddy wanted to get the wagon out and go enjoy the day with us. We set out on another walk about 4:00 to chat and feel the sun for a bit.

After our walk, we made plans to head to a nearby Cajun restaurant for dinner. We threw on some light jackets and headed for the patio! As we drove over I told my husband I was having some pressure in my pelvis and that it could be contractions, but I wasn't sure (with my 3.5 yr old, I was induced w/ pit after 24 hrs of ruptured membranes and no contractions. As a result, I never had any early labor, I went from not feeling any contractions to hard labor in the span of about 5 minutes. This made it hard for me to recognize my early contractions this time). We kept track of the pressure/ contractions throughout our meal. We finally decided I might be in early labor so once we finished dinner we packed a bag for DS and my husband took him to his Pop pop's house.

We had planned for new LO to be born at home, unassisted (my husband is a paramedic and my friend, Christy, was coming for extra support) but I had seen an OB for the entirety of my pregnancy. It had been an uneventful pregnancy and we had been told the baby was in a good position for delivery for the last 6 wks or so. We settled in for the night, excited that we might meet our new son soon!

My contractions strengthened over the next 2 hrs (8-10 p.m.) but their timing was still irregular, so I took some cohosh to try to remedy that and called Christy to come and join us. By 11 or 11:30, Christy was there and the contractions had gotten very intense and were coming every 3 minutes, or so, but they were still very short. Only lasting 20-40 seconds. I labored on my ball, and then moved to the bathtub. The water helped me handle the pain better (even though I have to admit, I am not a good laborer. I fuss and cry and snap at people).

At about 12:00 a.m., I moved to hands and knees on our bed. I was crying to my husband, between dry heaves, that I couldn't do it. I believed I still had a long way to go since my contractions were still so short. At this point, my husband told me that, despite the short contractions, he suspected I was in transition (in hindsight, he was definitely right. All the signs were there: shaking during contractions, dry heaving and crying I couldn't do it). He also said he was having a hard time being both my birth support and the one expected to deliver the baby at the same time. He suggested we go to the hospital so he could have his mind on me, and not the baby. I agreed and Christy started helping me get dressed. All the movement brought the contractions even closer together.

This was the point that I decided I needed to go to the bathroom before we left (famous last words, right? ). As soon as I sat down, my water broke (I said "Oh, God, there goes my water). As soon as my water broke, the baby dropped into my birth canal and I dropped to my hands and knees on the floor of the bathroom (I said "Oh, God, here he comes"). My husband wanted me to move to the bed, but that just wasn't going to happen.

Now, here is where things get hairy...

When the baby started to come, my husband noticed LO had passed meconium, but it wasn't just amniotic fluid w/ meconium in it, it was straight meconium and he instructed Christy to call 911. At this point, he couldn't see the baby yet because of my fairly upright angle and the baby wasn't far enough down the birth canal. With the next push I shrieked, "Here comes his head!", and my husband said "Oh, God... it's not his head". Julian was coming to us frank breech. The meconium was not in my amniotic fluid because it was coming right out of his little butt, just inside my birth canal.

My husband has since tried to explain the terror he felt in this moment. Expecting a head (since my OB had told me at the last 5 appointments that he was head down) and instead seeing his son coming out folded in half, made him believe the outcome of our situation was about to become tragic (fortunately, I could feel the baby moving inside me and knew he was alive). However, he still was able make his hands work like a medic. He told me we had to get the baby out fast and I was going to have to push w/ everything I could. I pushed through the next contraction and well past it. I had to break until the next contraction, but during the pause DH was able to get his hand inside me and pull out DS's legs. When the next contraction came, I pushed through/ past it and was able to get him delivered.

Our LO, thankfully, began to make noise and breathe on his own pretty quickly. I started saying "Oh my God, is that him? Is that my baby?" and DH flicked his soles to get a little more air in his lungs and a more vigorous cry, saying "Yes, yes... Oh God, yes it's him". I needed to have him in my arms right then! As DH passed him through my legs, I heard the ambulance's siren and Christy went to let the medics in. With all the adrenaline in my system and the release of knowing DS was ok, I was giddy... naked, covered in blood and meconium in the bathroom floor, but giddy and laughing when the medics came in!

They gave us plenty of time to get ourselves together and then drove us to the hospital so the baby could be evaluated (he was already developing a significant bruise on his hip that made it's way over his butt and down his thigh and we were worried about possible damage to his back and hips from the birth trauma). DS was rooting for my breast almost immediately and we were nursing as the wheeled us into the hospital! I delivered the placenta a few minutes after they moved me to the bed and the Dr. was amazed to find that I had not torn at all!

DS was being checked out while they were attending to me. He was uninjured (except for the bruising)! He weighed 7 lbs 9ozs and was 20.75 inches long. My OB finally arrived and offered the weak excuse that DS "must have flipped" (anyone think I wouldn't have felt a full term baby flip? But, maybe it's my fault... I was always bothered by the fact she never palpated by belly. First DS was born under the care of a midwife, just thought it was one of the differences in the style of care the 2 provided.). We spent 36 hrs in the hospital, just making sure everything was ok w/ Jules and keeping an eye on his bilirubin level.

We are home now! Jules is a great nurser and he has his 1st CD on as we speak. I am SO thankful everything turned out alright. In a way, I am glad we were home and I didn't have to have a C section, but it was still a pretty damn scary few minutes.